The invention relates to a connector having fixing means for mounting on a substrate, comprising one or more contact elements of electrically conducting material accommodated in a housing constructed from walls made of electrically insulating material, having a mounting side which, in the mounted state of the connector, is situated opposite a face of the substrate, the fixing means consisting of at least one element, projecting outside the housing beyond the mounting side and connected thereto, for engaging in an opening of the substrate.
A connector is shown having fixing means, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,327 assigned to the assignee of the present application. The fixing means therein consist of metal elements accommodated in one or more walls of the housing. To position the connector on the substrate, the housing is provided on the mounting side with outwardly projecting positioning projections.
In view of the current trend towards scale reduction of electronic components in order, on the one hand, to manufacture as small equipment as possible, which is suitable for insulation, and, on the other hand, in order to accommodate as many components as possible in equipment of given dimensions, for example in order to increase the number of functions of the equipment concerned, there is an increasing need for connectors of reduced dimension and/or connectors having as high a number of contact elements as possible without increasing the dimensions of the connector itself. Apart from, or in addition to, the use of suitably dimensioned contact elements, a reduction of the dimensions of the connector can also be achieved by constructing the walls of the housing with as little thickness as possible. However, this has consequences for accommodating a fixing element in these walls in accordance with the aforenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,327. In order to achieve a mechanically adequate, rigid fixing, the fixing element should, after all, have a certain minimum thickness. Consequently, this method of fixing cannot be used in a housing having walls thinner than this minimum thickness.